The cheapest calorie tracking apps in October 2026: free tiers and paid plans compared

What is the cheapest calorie tracking app?

The cheapest calorie tracking app is a free one. Samsung Health has no paid tier for food logging at all, and several other free tiers are genuinely usable. Among paid plans with a published annual price, as of October 2026, Carb Manager Premium ($39.99, built around keto and low-carb eating) and BiteTracker ($42, a general calorie and macro tracker) are the lowest. BiteTracker includes every feature, including meal planning with Instacart ordering, in that one plan, and costs $21 for the first year for people aged 24 and under.

We make BiteTracker, so we have an interest here. All other prices come from each company's own website, help center or US App Store listing, checked on October 1, 2026. Several apps change prices inside the app or show different offers to different people, so treat these as list prices and check before you pay.

Free calorie tracking apps: what you actually get

Free tiers differ more than their prices suggest. The biggest differences are barcode scanning, ads and whether there is a web version.

• Samsung Health is entirely free, with barcode scanning in the US, but it is built for Android and Galaxy watches and has no photo logging.
• Google Health, formerly Fitbit, keeps food search and barcode scanning free; its AI coach needs Premium and a Fitbit or Pixel Watch.
• MyNetDiary's free tier has no ads and includes barcode scanning, a shopping list and a web version.
• In MyFitnessPal, barcode scanning has needed Premium since 2022, and Lose It! is moving it to Premium.
• BiteTracker, MacroFactor, Carbon Diet Coach, WeightWatchers and Cal AI have no free tier; most offer a trial instead.

Paid calorie tracking apps ranked by annual price

Standard US annual prices, lowest first, then the apps that only show prices inside the app. The last price column shows what a year costs if you pay monthly instead.

• Coaching programs bundle lessons and support with logging, so Noom ($209) and WeightWatchers ($144) are not like-for-like with plain trackers.
• Apps that set prices in the app, such as FatSecret, Yazio, Lifesum and Foodvisor, show different offers to different people, so their listed price points are a range, not a quote.

Price and plan changes in 2026

Several apps changed what they charge, or what their free tier includes, this year:

• Google Health Premium, formerly Fitbit Premium, is $9.99 a month and is now included with Google's AI Pro and Ultra plans. Google lists the annual plan at $99; press reports put it at $99.99, up from $79.99.
• Lose It! is moving barcode scanning out of its free tier.
• Yazio moved AI photo logging from its free tier into Yazio Pro.
• WeightWatchers sells Core at $12 a month on a 12-month plan, presented as half its month-to-month price, after completing its restructuring in 2025.
• Noom bills Noom Weight plans upfront, from $70 for one month to $209 for a year.
• SnapCalorie lists Premium at $149 a year in the App Store, alongside several lower-priced offers.

The cheapest plan for each feature you might want

Price only matters for the features you will use. Here is the lowest price we found for each of the features people most often pay for:

• Barcode scanning: free in Samsung Health, Google Health, MyNetDiary, Cronometer, FatSecret, Carb Manager and Lifesum.
• AI photo logging: a few free photo logs a day in SnapCalorie. For unlimited use, Carb Manager Premium at $39.99, then BiteTracker at $42. In Cronometer, MyNetDiary, MacroFactor, MyFitnessPal and Lose It! it costs $59.99 to $79.99 a year.
• Meal planning: Carb Manager Premium at $39.99, with keto-focused plans, then BiteTracker at $42, with a meal calendar for any way of eating. MyFitnessPal needs Premium+ at $99.99.
• Ordering groceries from your plan: BiteTracker at $42 and WeightWatchers Core at $144, both through Instacart, and MyFitnessPal Premium+ at $99.99. These were the only three we found.
• A web version as well as the apps: BiteTracker, Cronometer, MyNetDiary, FatSecret, Carb Manager, MyFitnessPal and Lose It!. Most others, including MacroFactor, Noom, WeightWatchers, Yazio, Lifesum, Foodvisor, SnapCalorie and Google Health, are app-only.

Annual or monthly: how much the monthly plan costs you

Monthly plans cost far more over a year; the table above shows the gap for every app. A few examples:

• BiteTracker: $107.88 a year on the monthly plan, against $42 annually.
• MyFitnessPal Premium: $239.88 against $79.99.
• WeightWatchers Core: $276 to $288 against $144.
• Noom Weight: $840 for twelve single months, against $209 for a year.
• To find your break-even, divide the annual price by the monthly price: under five months for BiteTracker, Carb Manager and MyFitnessPal, about six for MacroFactor and WeightWatchers, and about eight for Carbon Diet Coach.

Discounts that lower the price further

BiteTracker has two discounts, and they do not stack. People aged 24 and under get 50 percent off the first year, on monthly or annual plans, which makes an annual plan $21. Seasonal promotions and some account offers take 20 percent off, making an annual plan $33.60. Checkout shows how long the discount lasts and the price the plan renews at.

Elsewhere, discounts are less predictable. WeightWatchers presents its 12-month price as half its month-to-month price. Lose It! says most users receive discounted offers in the app, and FatSecret, Yazio, Lifesum, SnapCalorie and Foodvisor list several price points in the App Store that look like promotions. Google Health Premium is included with Google's AI Pro and Ultra plans, and MacroFactor sells a six-month plan as a middle option. Whatever you choose, check whether a discount applies only to the first term and what the plan renews at.

Hidden costs: trials, renewals and lifetime plans

Most paid trackers start with a free trial that turns into a subscription unless you cancel. MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, MacroFactor, Carbon Diet Coach and MyNetDiary on iOS offer seven days, Cal AI three, and Google Health is running a three-month Premium trial as a promotion. BiteTracker offers a trial before you subscribe. Set a reminder a day before yours ends.

Upfront billing and lifetime plans can make a price look different from what you pay. Noom bills its plans upfront, so a year is one $209 charge. Lose It! Lifetime is $299.99 for most users, the price of almost four years of Premium. And if you switch apps, cancel the old subscription when the new one starts.

Is a free calorie tracker good enough?

For many people, yes. Searching a database, saving the meals you repeat and copying them from day to day covers most of what tracking needs, and several free tiers do that well. If you already use a Galaxy phone or a Fitbit, Samsung Health or Google Health covers the basics for nothing. Our guide to simple food logging shows how far the basics go.

Paying makes sense when it saves you time every day or replaces something else you would buy. Photo and text logging cut minutes off mixed meals, and a meal plan that becomes your shopping order replaces a separate meal-planning tool. If the plan also helps you cook more and order less takeout, it can pay for itself in groceries, especially with cheap high-protein meals.

The cheapest way to get everything in one app

If you want AI logging, barcode scanning, a meal calendar, a recipe book with macros and grocery ordering together, BiteTracker is the lowest-priced plan we found that includes all of them: $42 a year, $33.60 with a 20 percent offer, or $21 for the first year if you are 24 or under. It runs on iPhone, Android and the web, and the weekly report compares your weight trend with your log and suggests an updated target.

Start with the trial, log a few ordinary days, and compare it with the free tier of whichever app you are using now. Our roundup of the best calorie tracking apps covers what each one does best.